Cricket As Metaphor

The Queen of Links has stumbled upon a controversy in the cricket world which serves as an object lesson in multiculturalism. Not being a follower of the game, she turned to her reader Brett McS (who's been a welcome guest in these parts too recently) for an explanation of the fuss, and he obliged, including this:

Cricket umpiring takes its cue from General Sir Charles Napier, the guy Mark Steyn quotes telling the Hindus that they can build their funeral pyre if they like, and he will have his carpenters build a gallows right next to it, in case they feel the need to carry through with their sacred widow-burning traditions. Imperial rules. There is no arguing, there is no discussion. Even body language suggesting dissent can get a player clobbered by the judiciary. The umpire’s word is final. Full bloody stop. We look at baseball shennanigans where the players and coaches go toe-to-toe with the umpires as so, well, not cricket.

Do I sense a rebuke? Nevermind. There's also this:

Cheating Pakistani umpires is the reason that international cricket now uses neutral umpires. Not so long ago if Australia played England in England the umpires were all English, and when England came to Australia the umpires were all Australians. This caused no problem whatsoever (statistics back this up - there was no bias). Same with India, West Indies, South Africa. It was only when teams went to Pakistan that the umpiring became lop-sided. So this is the
real analogy.
A few terrorists => System has to change for everyone, everywhere

One cheating country => the system has to change for everyone, everywhere.

If only the world had paid attention to cricket while there was still time, perhaps we wouldn't be in this mess. However, I mostly raise the subject because of the headline for one of the stories: I'll fight, says defiant Hair.

I have defiant hair too.